Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-20


Your attention is respectfully called to
the very significant fact that at the end of
the year 1869, the date at which the road
was completed, the company had made
list application for 278,532 acres. all of
| which was made prior to the completion of
| the road itself, and that the Government
had responded by issuing patents for but
| l44, 3S6 acres, leaving balance of acres
listed and unpatented of 1884, 145. Thus.
| at the date of the completion of the road
the company was petitioner for 134, 145
acres OF land in excess of the response of
the Government to its petitions by way of
patent Your attention is further called to
the TACT that at the end of the year 1876
| the approximate date at which, under the
Act the company was to have completed
the road-it had made application for 721,-
6oS acres, to which the Government had
responded by issuing patents for but 52S,-
OOH, leaving balance of acres listed
and unpatented of 192,S04 Following the
| table down to the close of the wear
1883, most significant exhibit should
not escape your attention. At the
close of that year the company had ap.
piled from the date of the first listing in
1860 to the last listing completed in 1888,
for SS7, rs acres. From the acres so listed
| the Government had patented to the COM
pany lSO,879 acres, leaving a balance of
acres listed and unpatented of LOG, S4S acres.
From the close of the year 1883 to June 1st
OF the current year, the company has made
application for IA ,595 acres, an amount
| nearly equal in the three years and six
months under observation to the gross
amount of lands applied for in the twelve
years preceding that period. The policy of
increased activity in the application for
patents was inaugurated in the hope that
nfr ,vttx in,
of lists would be manifested by the Govern
ment. This. unfortunately. has not been
the case, as the table herein above clearly
exhibits. The only effect has been to in
crease disproportionately the figures in the
column headed Balance of Acres Listed
and Unpatented." OF the Ss7, 72s acres in
the aggregate listed at the close of
the year 1888, but log, 50s acres re-
manned unpatented; that is TO say,
about Is per cent. of the acres pre-
sented to the Land Department at Wash
lngton in the lists of selections remained
unpatented, while on the other hand. of the
So, 1913 in the aggregate listed on July /,
1887, 622,6l2 acres remained unpatented,
the unpatented land bearing the percentage
| relation TO the whole number of acres Sc
lected of about 50 per cent. Thus the per-
centage of the balance of acres listed and
unpatented has increased since the close of
the year 1888 from Is per cent. to IS per
cent. The significance of this exhibit, as
plainly tending to discourage the activity
of the company in making lists of selec-
tons, will not escape the attention of any
candid mind. The simple exhibit of facts
themselves forces upon the company the
conclusion that increased activity in the
way OF making lists of selections of lands
for which patent is asked has not been met
by corresponding activity on the part of
the Government in responding to the petit
tons of the company, but on the contrary
has served only to increase disproportion-
| ately the balance of acres listed and unpat-
ented. Your attention is called to the fact that
the aggregate fees paid on account of lands
selected by the company amount to 800, 1858.
Vi this sum IS per cent, or a sum in ex-
cess of S37 ,000 was paid upon the lands for
which patent is still withheld. The bal
| ance In favor of the company at the close
OF the business of 1888, which had been
paid upon the lands selected and I'M
patented, was but slightly in excess of
5000 Increased activity in meeting the
requirements of the granting Act, by pay
ing the costs of surveying, selecting and
conveying the land, has heretofore resulted
| in the payment into the Treasury of the
United States of large sum of money of
the use of which the company is deprived
Government to respond with patents, lies
useless in its Treasury. These facts pre-
sent only discouraging features well calcu-
lated to deter the company from the policy
OF increased activity in the way of making
lists of selections of the land granted.
The exhibit also shows clearly that from
the date OF the Inauguration ofthe relations
between the Government and He company
under this head there has been no time at
which the company has not had on deposit
with the Treasury of the United States a
considerable sum of money on account of
the payment of the costs of surveying, sell
Getting and conveying the lands; that al all
times, from the date of the first list of selec-
tons to June l, 1887, the Government itself
has been the party delinquent, and that
lists OF selections upon which the fees had
been paid largely in excess of the response
of the Government by way of patents have
been at all times, and at all dates since the
first list of selections was completed before
the Land Department of the Government
for examination
THE GOVERNMENT FAILS TO SURVEY THE
LAND.
Notwithstanding the requiem ent that
the company shall pay the cost of SURVEYS.
the right to determine when such SURVEYS
shall be made is vested by law in the Gov
eminent of the United States. During the
past two years the rates allowed by the
Commissioner of the General Land Office
for surveying have been so low as to almost
wholly arrest the progress OF SURVEYS with
IN the limits of the grant As fully Illus
trating the disposition of the present ad-
minis:ration in the premises, it may be
here related that during the year 1886
the Surveyor General for the State of Ne
yada advertised for bids for surveys relat-
ing 10 345 townships of land, wholly with
in the limits of the grant to your company,
in that State. These 345 townships, en-
bracing about one-half the area of the
lands granted to your company in
the State of Nevada, are still unsur-
veyed. Specifications for these surveys,
and the amount which would be allowed
as fees for the surveys were advertised,
and the bids were to have been opened,
according to the advertisements. on the 1st
day of November in that year. Upon the
date at which these bills were to be opened
not one bid had been received The pro-
posals had been rejected in their entirety
by the surveyors. A like result has attended
the offers:of the Government for the COM
pletion of the surveys of land in California,
and on the lst of July, 1886, the Surveyor